With just one week to go until we move to our new library system on Monday 17 August, we’d like to draw your attention to some of the positive changes we’ve made to our loans and fines policies following consultation:

 

• Borrowing allowance –  all members of the University will now be able to borrow up to 30 items at a time.
• Automatic renewal – to avoid incurring any unnecessary fines, we will automatically renew books on your behalf once we go live with the new system, unless they have been requested by another user.

• Simpler loan periods – to make things simpler, we have got rid of our 1 day, 7 day and ordinary loans. Instead, all items (with a few exceptions – i.e. CDs, DVDs, scores) now have a standard loan period of 2 weeks – and for those popular textbooks which used to be located in our short loan collection on Level 1 – some will be made Reference only, so there will always be a copy available for you to read in the Library.
• Fewer fines – The only time we will fine you is if an item has been requested by another user, and you do not bring it back on time. Fines for any overdue reserved items will be set at £2 per day, although you will always have 7 days in which to return your items.

 

 

Introducing SurreySearch

In addition, you can also expect to see some other enhanced features in place. Our new search platform, SurreySearch, will replace our existing library catalogue and Summon. Through SurreySearch, you will be able to explore our printed and electronic collections  – and you’ll even be able to search for items in our Archives & Special Collections and Open Access repository too, all in one place!

Personalise your Library account

You will also be able to personalise your library account and searches – with the option to save search results, set up alerts and even email lists to yourself. You can even rank the relevance of your search results based on your preferred subjects and disciplines. If you’re a researcher looking for a particular journal article, the new ‘Citation linker’ option is a great way to quickly search our stock (by title, date or even DOI number) to see if it’s available. If we don’t have a copy in our collection, you can seamlessly request this as an Inter Library loan.

No more PIN

The days of having (and remembering) a Library PIN are also over! Instead, you will be able to log in to your account using your IT username and password – the same details you use to log in to any of our online resources.

 

 

We’re sure you’ll find these streamlined policies make using the library a lot easier, and will provide an enhanced ‘search’ experience. All our usual features – such as placing reservations and requesting Inter Library Loans – will still be in place and work as usual, although the way you request these might look a little different.

If you have any questions about the new system, please come and speak to a member of library staff or email us: library-enquiries@surrey.ac.uk

Once we go live, we’d love to know your thoughts about these improvements. To give your feedback, please get in touch and let us know: library-feedback@surrey.ac.uk